The Infection
by Rurikredwolf
Summary: When fighting Ridley, Samus discovers that Ridley is terrified of one thing; the plague that wiped out his entire species. When she finds the host, she may have to ally  herself with Ridley and the Pirates to stop another outbreak. Set after Fusion


**Oh lawdy, my third Metroid story. The first failed on epic proportions and the second was retconned by other M (Which was still a good game minus the writing). So now I bring you this. Not my best work, but better than anything else I posted on her imo.  
**

"Wow, this certainly is a turn of events from that bottle ship incident…"

These words were spoken by a large dragon-like creature that was flying over a large battlefield. Beams shot across the field, striking down anyone who was unfortunate to stand in the path. The setting was a large citadel-like area with a rocky terrain surrounding it. Silver soldiers came on each side of the fortress, firing into it. Red beams retaliated against the blue lasers that were shot at them.

The ones shooting the blue lasers were soldiers of the Galactic Federation. As their name implied, they intended to be peacemakers and consisted of multiple species, ranging from human to a gelatinous creature that could take any form (although humans mostly made up the Federation's bulk). They were hated enemies of the Space Pirates, whom they were fighting.

Space Pirates were criminals who stole, pillaged, and spread like a plague. No matter how many crippling defeats they had, they would always resurface in some way. Like the Galactic Federation, they had other races in their midst. Reptilian creatures seemed to be the most dominate, but some pirates had crab-like pincers that weapons could be concealed. While most are stronger than humans, they had the disadvantage of being outnumbered in this battle.

However, they had a leader that could possibly turn the tides….if he had not been busy on his own.

The current commander, a black dragon named Ridley, was flying around the fortress with what appeared to be a blue whip constricted around his back claw. Dangling from the whip, a small figure could be seen flying after the dragon. The figure was Samus Aran, a fierce intergalactic bounty hunter and rival to Ridley.

Samus was wearing an orange organic suit with yellow spots on her knees and arms. A large yellow patch was visible on her midsection. Her helmet was the traditional red color with grey tubes connecting to her mouth area (shaped like a diagonal rectangle). The visor was green and, on the inside, displayed her vitals.

She had seventeen energy tanks out of twenty and two-hundred missiles out of two-hundred and fifty. The whip was coming out of a small green-black cannon on her arm, rendering her unable to fire. All Samus could do was dodge the large tail pointed tail that Ridley had. Every time she tried to retract the whip, he would send multiple fireballs at her.

Samus said nothing in response to what Ridley said to her, too focused on the battle. This had to be the eighth time she fought the dragon and it was getting tiring. He was right about the bottle ship incident; she was terrified of him then, and still was, but she had to defeat him lest the tides turn on the Federation.

Even though Samus was on the side of the Galactic Federation, she was wanted by them after destroyed the B.S.L, SR388, and their Metroid breeding program. When she was returning from the remains, she got a warning from a reliable source that they were now hunting her. The reliable source was none other than Anthony Higgs, who Samus fought alongside in the Bottle Ship incident.

If she managed to defeat Ridley, there were no guarantees that she could simply walk away from this. Dodging another attack from Ridley's tail by swinging to the side, she launched herself forward by releasing the whip, propelling herself into the air and allowing her to find another area to grapple. She found a spike on Ridley's spine and shot at it, wrapping around it and retracting so that she landed heavily on his back.

"Oh, there we go!" Ridley turned his head and focused his violet eyes on her, "I was wondering how long you would dangle there!"

Samus responded by digging the 'teeth' on her left forward into a space between his scales and firing a missile at him. He moved out of the way. The teeth on her forearm were from Metroid DNA being integrated into her suit. They were as hard as the talons that they possessed and while they lacked the leaching ability (as far as she knew), they retained the grip.

Ridley started to spin in the air, nearly tossing Samus off of his back and into the fortress below. She likely could have survived the fall, but would have been surrounded. If she was going down, she was taking Ridley with her. On that subject, she noticed that Ridley had his wings open for some reason and almost directly in front of her.

Smiling at the small overlook, Samus raised her arm cannon and started to charge her ice beam. When it was fully charged (A medium sized ball was coming out), she released it. Three streaking balls of ice rotated towards his wing. It hit the middle and spread all the way to where it connected to the body. Not giving him any rest, she did the same, but aimed at the other side.

Ridley shrieked in anger as he suddenly found himself falling towards the fortress on his back. Samus grappled onto his talon and swung herself onto his chest, firing another ice beam into his mouth when he had it open. It was almost comical to see him try and chomp down on the ice. Samus fired missile after missile into his mouth. As they were also ice, they would explode and refreeze.

The impact of the fortress was less than she expected, but then again, she was on a dragon at least five times her size. When they broke the top of the fortress, Samus only expected to go down to the first floor and stop. However, they broke through that as well and seemingly started to fall into an endless abyss. It reminded her of the time on Norion, but this time, she could see the end. Kicking off of Ridley just before they hit the ground, she screw-attacked down to his side, facing away.

Quickly rotating around, she saw that Ridley was completely stunned from the crash. Holding his arm cannon, she watching him slowly bite through the ice and cough up green blood. Up above, the fighting seemed to stop. Only a small explosion was a sign that it may be continuing.

Taking a look around the room, Samus gasped. Levitating in a large container was another dragon like Ridley, but there were different features. For one, what appeared to be black spots covered the body and, if possible, had softer textures than Ridley. Samus immediately switched to her scan visor.

_Subject is infected by an unknown virus and is in stasis. Scans indicate that it is a mutation virus not unlike Phazon, yet no changes to DNA or fatal defects are present. It appears to be similar to Ridley, but female. Further investigation is required._

"I…wouldn't…" Ridley suddenly said.

"Why? Is that your mate in there?" Samus started to walk towards it. She was going to destroy this and wound him further than any other defeat.

"…Yes…releasing her….bad idea…" Ridley seemed to be…pleading with her. That alone was enough to make her stop.

"How so?" She turned to face Ridley. She could actually see sadness in his muzzle. Yet, she couldn't feel pity for him after what he had done to her.

"Infection…killed entire species…dormant inside her…"

Samus's eyes widened. Inside of her body…there was a disease capable of wiping out an entire species? Keeping her in stasis would merely prolong the issue, so why did she not die? From what she learned from the Space Pirates, they would kill any sickly soldiers. Did Ridley actually have some emotions? As tempted as she was to kick off the Stasis and unload her arsenal into her, there was the issue of the Federation.

The Federation had a history of creating bio-weapons and this would merely be their newest project. She had to destroy it here, but if she unleashed a power bomb, the cavern may collapse and she would have no way of preventing any more incidents. Still….the question remained for how she has no negative impacts on her.

"If this wiped out your entire race, why is she having no side effects?" Samus questioned.

Just when Ridley was about to answer, another voice shouted:

"DON'T MOVE!"

The Federation had found them. Suddenly, twenty flying units had plasma cannons directed at her and Ridley. If she wanted to, she could have easily taken them out, but more poured in. Biting her lip, she kept her cannon raised, but didn't fire.

"Samus Aran, you are under arrest for the destruction of SR388 and the Biological Space Laboratory!" a soldier shouted to her, "If you resist, we will destroy you along with the citadel."

Samus really didn't see much of a choice. As much as she hated it, they could easily take her out with a flick of a finger. It wasn't like prison could hold her for long anyway. She'd escaped before. All she needed to do was missile the door.

"How…lovely. The hunter…had become the hunted…by her own species…." Ridley laughed. Two shoulders shot at him, silencing him instantly.

Sighing, Samus made the power suit go away and allowed herself to be captured and then escape if things went back. She did want a chance to defend herself in a trial. Maybe Adam, her computer that had the mind of her former C.O., or Higgs could defend her. But would they understand her position?

There was only one way to find out…

**I know Ridley is usually purple, but it has been shown that he could change his colors.**


End file.
